Just a week ago, we learned of the hospitalization of the former president of Burundi in a hospital in Bamako, Mali, where he was residing. Pierre Buyoya, who led his country between 1987-1993 and 1996-2003, died in Paris at the age of 71 from Covid-19, we learned from several of his relatives on Friday. “President Pierre Buyoya died last night in Paris. He had the Covid-19 ”, told Agence France-Presse a member of his family who requested anonymity.
The rumor had been circulating since Friday morning in the Burundian media. In the middle of the morning, several other relatives confirmed the death of the one who also held the post of High Representative of the African Union (AU) for Mali and the Sahel from 2012 to the end of November 2020. Mr. Buyoya “had was hospitalized on Wednesday last week (December 9, Editor’s note) in a Bamako hospital where he had been placed on a ventilator, ”the member of his family told AFP. “He was evacuated to Paris yesterday”, early Thursday afternoon, “his plane made a stopover and arrived in France overnight. He died in an ambulance which took him to a Parisian hospital for treatment, ”said this source.
Pierre Buyoya is one of the few African heads of state to have voluntarily withdrawn from political life on two occasions.
Pierre Buyoya, a man of experience
Career soldier, Pierre Buyoya, Tutsi from a modest background, first made his career in the army before becoming president following a coup d’état against Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, also a Tutsi , against a background of grumbling in the army.
During his first term, he worked to open up the democratic space in Burundi, a process which led in 1993 to the election as head of the country of Melchior Ndadaye, the first democratically elected president of Burundi and the first Hutu to come to power. . The Hutus represent around 85% of the population of Burundi.
He returned to power in 1996, again following a coup d’état, and while Burundi was plunged into a deadly civil war. He signed the Arusha Accords in 2000, which aimed to put an end to the civil war (300,000 dead between 1993 and 2006), and left power in 2003 in accordance with these agreements.
In October 2020, after having held numerous honorary positions in his country and abroad as an electoral observer or mediator in the service of several international organizations (AU, OIF, Ceeac), Pierre Buyoya was sentenced to prison in life imprisonment by Burundi for the assassination in 1993 of his predecessor Melchior Ndadaye. The ex-president denounced “a political trial conducted in a scandalous manner” and resigned at the end of November from his role as AU special envoy to “wash (his) honor”. “It’s difficult to be a head of state, of course. But it is also difficult to be a former head of state ”he declared in the columns of the magazine. Young Africa in 2006.
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